Destiny
by Proceleusmatic
Summary: Once upon a time, there was a land. The people were terrorized daily by creatures that swooped down from the realms of Infinity… the place that is haunted by the Goddess Chaos. Only four people can stop them. R&R?
1. Prologue

Destinie

**Woohoo! First fic here, folks! The all-time favorite couples, duh. Sakura and Syaoran! W00t! And Tomoyo and Eriol! Time to stop my rambling! I don't care about/for flames. They're pointless, DUH. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything anyone recognizes. Especially CCS! (sadly.)**

**Proceleusmatic**

**Please R&R!**

Once upon a time, there was a land.

It was prosperous, but fell into darkness around 3000 A.N. The people were terrorized daily by murderous creatures that swooped down from the realms of Infinity… that place that is haunted by the Goddess Chaos.

This land was tortured, scarred. Scarred by the plague of death, the stench of it that flowed throughout the country, in the smallest cracks. In the darkest corners, young children huddled, whimpering creatures with large, dark eyes and hollow cheeks. The night was almost lighter than day; no lions with dark wings and six-inch claws shrouded the cloudy sky, shredding the air with their knife-ish teeth. Raucous men from neighboring kingdoms terrorized the fearful women at pubs, slugging cups upon cups of ale. These crowded places were popular and merry.

One in particular, the Black Gryphon, was a very well-known pub. It was large, clean, and warm. Once a monster from Infinity, a Thundertail, had entered the pub, and the bartender had dryly offered it some whisky.

It had exited several hours later, too drunk to even fly.

The story begins there.

A young girl sat on top of the two-story hut, her left leg stretched out. Her right leg was huddled up close to her chest, being hugged by slender arms. She was sixteen.

She stared into the starry sky. A lone fireclaw soared across the pitch-black night, leaving a trail of glistening raindrops that slowly fell into fire, vanishing inches from the girl's face. She leaned back and stared upwards solemnly and resolutely. Her dark green eyes glistened black and gold as the fireclaw did a single turn backwards, backwatering into a halt next to her head.

"Nice night, Sakura," he commented. She turned her head to look into his lustrous golden-red plumage.

"Yeah. I've seen better, though…" Sakura sighed and sat up. "What are nights like in Infinity, Kharis?"

"We don't have nights or days. How many times have I told you?" Kharis' beak widened in a smile.

"Oops." Sakura muttered. She looked at her companion. "You hungry?" she asked, pulling out a dead Kan she had found. This was a small, black creature with nine legs and a round belly. Fireclaws had to eat Darkness, or black creatures from Infinity, to stay alive, or they flamed up in their own heart.

Kharis snapped up the small thing and grinned, then took flight. Sakura waved to him.

He fluttered a wing and vanished into the night.

Sakura opened a trapdoor in the thatched roof. She descended down steps into darkness, and struck a match on the wall. It flared, and she lit a torch. She stepped down into the pub and stuck the torch in an empty bracket.

Sakura sat down next to her mother, an old woman with long, stringy hair.

"How's business, okaa-san?"

"Not bad, not exceptional," the mother groaned. "Just a long night."

Sakura wasn't treated badly by her mother, just ignored. They were more like business partners than relatives. This was rational, as Sakura was adopted. She didn't know anything about her background.

"Go work the drinks, will ya?" her mother mumbled, blinking her eyes shut once again.

Sakura moaned. She hated working the drinks. The men were drunk and acted like it, too. Nevertheless, she strolled over behind the counter with her usual grace.

Meanwhile,

A young man, seventeen years old, stood inside a small room with another guy. They both held swords.

Suddenly, the first man, with hair many shades of brown and amber eyes, flew at the other, his face set with determination.

The other man, slightly taller than the first, had glasses, navy hair and a careless stance. He met the other's sword with a lazy clang, slowly settling into a fighting pose.

"You know, Syaoran," the second man said, "Why do we do this every night?" His blade slid along the first, almost reaching Syaoran's hand. Syaoran ducked under the other blade, swinging yet again. The second man, Eriol, swung his sword around behind his back, blocking the swipe.

"I know we're good, Eriol, but—" Clang. "Are we good enough to kill a Ckerebel?" Eriol winced, thinking of the strange creatures whose skeletons were on the outside of their bodies, their flesh kind of crumpled, like an un-blown balloon. Their skin rippled in the breeze grotesquely behind the bones, which made an eerie whistling noise.

They fought for several minutes more, but Eriol gained the upper hand by reaching past Syaoran's sword and piercing his thumb with his sharp nail. Syaoran, enraged, dropped his sword and kicked Eriol's out of his hand. He punched and Eriol blocked.

Syaoran planted his feet, back to Eriol, and swung his foot into Eriol's guard, spinning and planting a strike on his temple. Eriol grabbed his arm and tried to kick him, but Syaoran flipped over his head, forcing Eriol to flip with him onto the ground. Eriol swept Syaoran's feet from under him, and lay next to him.

"Done for tonight, Syaoran?" Eriol panted.

"Sure." Syaoran gave a harsh grin, Eriol a tough smile. They walked up through the loft into a bedroom with two beds. They settled into the soft sheets and drifted off to sleep, eyes wide open.

Sakura adjusted her mattress on the roof, and closed one eye. In moments she was asleep.

Eyes watched from above, gold and crazed.

**BUAHAHAHAHAHHA! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! How evil! Not a bad start, eh? Please R&R.**

**Moi: Hi!**

**Me: Shut up.**

**Moi: No!**

**Me: Bye, people.**

**Proceleusmatic: Inspired**


	2. Raid

Destinie

**It's fun to write… even without reviews. Lol. I would, in fact, (believe it or not) prefer the reviews, but yeah. Anyhoo. **

**I guess this is where the fun begins… Heh. Heh. Heh. BWAHAHAHA-ahem.**

**Disclaimer: I … sniff do not own… sniff this. WWWAAAAH!**

**Proceleusmatic**

**By the way: Xin Jing: Danke for the review... yeah, I'm going to try and make this one a leeeeettle longer.**

**Although I've only got one review, I'm going to update cause I like to write!**

Raiders.

A dreaded word.  
They were looting, murderous people who ran through villages on horseback and stole cattle, women, slaves and goods. Feared by all, they often carried large, menacing-looking weapons that were frequently used.

Sakura, when she was smaller, had had the dream that her father –'daddy' was a king, and would arrest all the bandits forever. In another dream, she was a princess by day and a martial artist by night. Of course, then she enrolled in martial arts classes. She often chased her dreams.

Raiders. They had never before entered the city where the Black Gryphon was…

But now was a different matter.

A band of large, burly men thundered through the dirty cobblestone streets. They leaned way forward in their saddles, swiping at random civilians with their sharpened weapons. Sakura smelt blood in the air from inside the Gryphon. The noise that the horses were making was unbelievable. She heard the noise of screeching Icestrikes above. She looked up and barely managed to raise her hand as an Icestrike crashed through the ceiling. She raised her hand and struck the Icestrike's left wing right beneath the elbow joint. The snowy white feathers glowed red for a moment, then the thing keeled over, unconscious within seconds.

Sakura looked outside, then flew from the Black Gryphon, a sword in hand. It was her sword; it was a strange sword. She had found it embedded up to the hilt in one of the top branches in the hugest oak in the wood two miles north. It had a huge blade, long and hefty, shimmering like a silver ice pick. The hilt itself was ebony black studded with small green stones, the pommel-stone huge and white.

She sped down the road to the raiders advancing on a boy three years younger than her she knew. She shoved them out of the way, blocked the axe and ran the man through. She hauled him out of the saddle, cut the saddle from the horse, and whacked the animal's hindquarter. It whinnied and galloped away. She ran after the group, which was advancing on a man called Hino, who was the resident blacksmith, a burly, dark-skinned man. He had his hammer in his hand, but was too slow to avoid one bandit's sword. Sakura turned away at the last second, and, a tear leaking from one long-lashed eye, dashed back to the young boy, whose name was Arei.

Sakura helped Arei up and jostled him down the road to the Gryphon. She locked him in her room.

"It never used to be like this before the Infinity belt snapped." Sakura sighed, hauling her white shield over her arm and wiping her eyes. On this shield was carved a pair of long, slender wings with a red stone in the center.

The Infinity belt kept all the creatures from Infinity inside their own world. When the belt snapped, the Goddess Chaos sent her beings in through the break. With all the monsters now having free run down the kingdom, the monarchy was falling to pieces.

Sakura swung out of a window on a string, kicking a man off a horse. She unsaddled this horse too, a huge male stallion that was jet black with a white mane and tail. It reared and fled. Sakura ran up the street in hot pursuit of the rest of the band. She caught a glimpse of horse hair flying down an alley. She turned and came face to face with a huge bandit holding some horse hair in one hand.

He gave her a yellow-toothed grin. She gagged at his putrid breath. As he raised his large mallet, she gritted her teeth and, with precision, lopped off the head of the large wooden utensil. It fell to the ground. The man held a stick about six inches. His eyes widened and she clouted him on the back of the head, and then bound him with his own horse-hair rope.

Sakura peeked out from the alley. No one was there. The streets were deserted.

She raced back to the Gryphon. She burst in through the door and met a horrible sight.

Blood was spattered across the ground. The cozy armchair had been lit on fire. Sakura muttered a quick spell and put a water-square on the chair. The counter had been chopped at and hacked. The money-box hidden in the ground was, mercifully, untouched. The glass cabinets were smashed and looted. The Icestrike was still motionless on the ground. Sakura raced upstairs, heart pounding, to her room.

_Arei…_

Her bedroom door was off its hinges. She turned into the room, and found Arei standing over an immobilized man on the ground. Arei was holding Sakura's staff, and was extremely pale. He looked up at her. Sakura almost laughed with relief. She sighed and walked over to the thirteen-year old. He handed her the staff with a shaking hand. She grinned, tossing her honey-colored hair and showing her sparkling teeth. Arei's face slowly became less pale.

Sakura ruffled his hair and tied the man up, shackling him to the wall.

It suddenly struck her as odd that the town was so quiet. She took Arei's hand and walked outside again. Sakura looked around again. As before, the streets were completely deserted. Her brows furrowed, her nose wrinkled. She smelt dust in the air. Horses had been galloping, of course. She still heard hoofbeats…

She turned as the hoofbeats stopped and Arei tugged on her sleeve. She stood almost nose-to-nose with a huge black stallion with a white star between his eyes. He nudged her head, almost knocking her over.

"Your name's Farai," she whispered to the large animal after scrutinizing him for a minute. He tossed his head. Arei stared at him in awe.

"D'you know this horse, Sak?" Arei asked, stroking Farai. Sakura looked at Arei.

"A bandit was riding him," she replied, going back inside. She returned a few minutes later with a simple pad that she laid over the stallion's back. She put a blanket over his lower back.

"Up." she ordered briskly. Arei tried to hoist himself up, but failed. Sakura rolled her eyes and lifted him onto the stallion. Her muscles flexed as she pulled herself onto Farai. She nudged him into a stubborn trot down the silent road. The hooves were the only sound.

She peered into dwelling after dwelling, to be met with emptiness, or in some cases, a body. She refused to let Arei look at all. As she looked into the last house on the street, she was met with the staring eyes of a regular at the Gryphon.

Sakura's eyes turned a shade redder around the rims.

"This's gotta be stopped." Arei said, voicing her thoughts.

"HELLO? HELLO?" Sakura heard a faint call issuing from one of the houses she had passed. She turned Farai and galloped towards the voice. She came across a young girl holding a thin saber with a slashed tunic and breeches tucked into black boots.

"Oh, good! There's someone else! I've been all over this Spirits-blest town and no one's here!" The girl ran over to the horse. Sakura and Arei dismounted. Sakura shook the girl's hand.

"What's your name?" she said happily.

"Tomoyo. Tomoyo Daidouji," the girl replied. She shook back her dark hair and tied it in a tan bandanna. They shook hands. Sakura felt callus and tough skin beneath her fingers. Here was a girl she could relate to.

"How old are you? What did you say your name was?" Tomoyo asked happily.

"I'm sixteen, and I didn't." Sakura replied. "It's Sakura. He's Arei." Tomoyo waved at Arei.

"What happened to everyone?" Tomoyo asked.

"Stolen. Killed." Sakura said solemnly. She slung her shield onto Farai's neck. "You have a horse?"

"She's in there." Tomoyo nodded to the shed, and went over to it. She unbolted the door and a pure white mare sprung from it like a shower of light. Arei and Sakura gasped. "Her name's Springfall." Arei went over to the mare. He tried to pat her, but the mare nipped at his fingers and huffed at him.

"Well, excuse _me_." Arei muttered, withdrawing his fingers. "She's feisty. How do you manage her?"

"Horse magick." Tomoyo replied, and hopped onto Springfall. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"It's time for this country to change. We need the Elementals." Sakura said, her face as set as iron. She trotted Farai down the road back to the Gryphon.

"Need anything?" she asked Tomoyo and Arei. "You'd better get it."

She ran inside and got her bow and arrows. "You're a fair shot, Arei, right?" Arei nodded and slung the quiver over his shoulder. Sakura put one change of shirt and breeches and other assorted clothes in her pack, with all the money from the Gryphon's cash box and a pocketknife. Arei had no belongings. Tomoyo packed the same as Sakura, but only packed what money she had.

Sakura went inside the Gryphon one last time and grabbed her mother's long, curved knife. She saw the Icestrike on the ground and lifted it. She went outside and Tomoyo gasped.

"We're bringing that?" she stammered.

"Yep. Icestrikes desert any of the murder who fall behind." Sakura stuffed the small animal into the pack, making sure not to tug out any of the feathers.

Sakura's eyes leaked as they looked back at their looted pub. Tomoyo simply stared at Springfall as they trotted out of their home.

Forever?

Elementals…

Elementals are four mythical objects. Legends tell that there is one item for each element and that one must overcome odds to find each one.

Syaoran, who lived in a different city, put down the news about the town.

"No survivors, eh?" he mused, sipping his drink.

"Dunno… maybe they just ran away." Eriol said.

"Doubt it." Syaoran retorted.

"Nevertheless, this country's really going to pieces, huh?" Eriol muttered darkly.

"Yeah." Syaoran nodded.

**Phew! Usually I write so much more… in so much less time… oh well. Never done one like this. Usually it's all modern cliché stuff. Now it's not-modern cliché stuff. Wow.**

**Proceleusmatic: Inspired**


	3. Blood

**_Destinie: Chapter 3_**

**Updating! Lessee: Thanks to, um, **

**Ffgirl07? Is that right?**

**And … Bubbly Emerald, special thanks because… um, you favorited too! **

**Not to mention Koe, who also favorited! I love you guys! You give me inspiration!**

**Yay! Weehee! The story's gonna start speeding up some. Did I mention Syao and Sakura MEET? MWAH HA HAH!**

**Proceleusmatic

* * *

**

Syaoran stuck his head out the door and sniffed. Blood. He knew that smell, oh yes.

"Eriol!" he barked harshly inside, arousing Eriol from a pleasant dream about roast turkey.

Eriol scrambled out of bed and shoved on his wire rims, just standing and swaying for a split second. Then his eyes snapped open, revealing a navy shade. Eriol shifted his weight forward and tossed his feet lightly off the ground, thrusting his left shoulder down and twisting into a flip. He landed, fully awake, and tugged on some clothes, then ran outside to meet Syaoran.

"What is it?" he grunted, surveying the scene.

"Sniff." Syaoran muttered in response. Eriol did so, and flinched at the stench.

"Why's that smell here?" Eriol questioned, peering around the edges of the balcony. He saw only a deserted area, and the rest of the scattered houses of their village.

Syaoran shrugged in response, maintaining his code of five words or less. Eriol, seeing that Syaoran had no intention whatsoever of going to see what blood was doing in their village, hopped over the rail of the balcony down to the ground. He walked briskly down the street, glancing in each window he passed. Within minutes, he was walking back towards the house, still not having found the source of the smell.

As he walked around the back of their house, he saw it.

A huge creature, white and red, was lying right behind their own house. It had large gaps in it, like some beast had eaten chunks of it. These spots were rotting, large and dark. Somehow, it was still alive. Eriol drew his sword and put the poor thing from its misery, and then knelt beside it, examining the surrounding dirt for prints of some kind. His search was not in vain. He found one strange footprint that looked like a foot with two hooves that faced east and west, and two that faced north and south, all on the same foot. Eriol looked up from the print. He whistled softly.

"A Northpoint…" There were eight feet, each with four hooves, and the footprints they left meandered in no real direction, wavering and wandering randomly.

"Hey, Syao," Eriol called. Syaoran came strolling around the back and made a face at the carcass. Eriol pointed at the black holes in the body. "Northpoint," he stated.

A Northpoint had huge, pointed canines for every one of his teeth. When it sank these teeth into any kind of flesh it became pitch black; when they passed through blood they infected the stream.

"We were lucky." Syaoran said, once again sticking to his code.

"Lucky." Eriol repeated, staring at the unlucky animal. He closed his eyes and felt his mind through the dirt, removing a large chunk and raising it. He rolled the animal into the hole and let the earth drop onto it, drowning the smell.

Syaoran bristled. "You know I hate that," he said, referring to the dirt. He stalked around front. Eriol stood there with blank eyes. He heard a long whistle and turned around, drew his sword, and sliced in one fluid motion, killing the small snake that had been speeding towards him, mouth open. He checked under its tongue, finding a black poison sac. He rolled his eyes and flung a small amount of dirt over the animal, burying it.

Syaoran stared blankly at an old picture of the Silver Age. He sighed and tugged on hunting boots.

"Eriol, I'm going hunting," he called, and set out, trudging towards the forest.

* * *

Sakura sat on a rock in the woods, dappled with light, carving out a chunk of dirt trapped in her boot. Tomoyo was taking small nibbles out of an apple she had plucked off a tree; Arei was chewing on a bit of dried meat.

"So, where do we find these 'Elementals', supposedly, anyway?" Tomoyo asked, taking a final nibble out of the apple and feeding the rest to Springfall, who tossed her hair as she ate the fruit.

"The four corners of the planet

The four ends of the Earth

The breach to Infinity

The crossing to birth."

Sakura spoke softly. Tomoyo looked strangely at her.

"Do what now?" she said.

"That's what the old saying is. It's about the elementals. The first verse is about location, the second is basically a lot of rambling. It goes, ere you leave to never return, to seek that that soothes and that that burns, that which floats and that which sinks, to near the everlasting brink, four must forever hold the link." Sakura got the final blasted bit of mud out of her shoe and sighed. "No clue what it means."

"I'm with ya." Arei seconded, standing up and stretching. Sakura fed Farai some water and grain from a skin and stood up.

"So where do we find them? Like, how?" Tomoyo persisted.

Sakura uttered one more word. "Shrine."

"Shrine?" Arei echoed questioningly; his eyebrows rose, stretching his eyelids lazily.

"Yup. The shrines of the Elements. The four corners of the earth. On the infinity belt. Between Chaos and Destiny." Sakura hoisted herself onto Farai.

"Come on, Arei." Arei was desperately attempting to hoist himself up, but he had virtually no upper-body strength.

"Arei, you need strength. I'm not going to be there every time to help you ward off something or other. From now on, ten pushups every morning." Sakura urged Farai onwards just as Arei managed to slip over onto the horse, exhausted. Tomoyo shielded a grin, riding up by Sakura on Springfall.

"Ha!" Sakura toed Farai lightly, determination on her face. Farai thundered through the woods.

"So, where is the infinity belt, anyway?"

"Between life and death."

"What? How are we getting THERE?"

"You'll see."

"You must be j-…"

"SHUT UP!"

Sakura rolled her eyes and did up her honey hair into a ponytail at the base of her head. She yanked it tight and slowed Farai to a trot. He snorted and tossed his head.

"What is it, boy?" Sakura leaned over and soothed him. His eyes flicked from side to side. He snorted and pawed up the scrubby ground with a large hoof. Sakura looked up suspiciously.

"Is it an animal?" Arei whispered.

"No." Sakura said curtly, dismounting quietly. Her eyes shot in all directions, her ears listened for any noise. The loam engulfing her feet squished under her step, muffling her soft footsteps as she walked off the path. Her leather shoes met mud, and she cursed several times in quick succession before remembering that there were small children in the vicinity.

She turned around a giant oak.

A pair of eyes met hers. She drew her sword and blocked a slash that was coming at her. She backed up, dashing back into the clearing. As the light fell upon her opponent's face, she saw a pair of intense amber eyes, glistening gold and brown and shining mud. She saw the rest of his face. He was a young man probably a year or two older than her, and his hair was the same as his eyes, many shades of shimmering chocolate. She lowered her sword slowly, then raised it slightly, then lowered it again.

Syaoran lowered his sword. His opponent was a mere girl, probably a whole year or two younger than he was. She looked like she was struggling to even lift her sword. Hah. He smirked. Sure, she had nice eyes. Whatever.

"Why are you coming through OUR forest?" Syaoran asked archly, his nose inclined upwards the slightest bit.

"None of your business." Sakura spat, disgusted by his snooty tone.

"Sorry, it is. You see, we own this forest." Syaoran smirked again. "So if you won't tell us, we'll have to punish you."

"Nowhere does it say 'No Trespassing!'" Sakura hissed.

Syaoran, unimpressed, waved at the nearest tree, indicating a 'No Trespassing' sign. Sakura blushed.

"Anyway, little girls shouldn't be out in the woods alone. Not when I'm hunting. So are you going to tell me or not?" Sakura fumed at his comment.

"No. I'm not," she replied, sneering in her usual fashion. She was more passive in the night, when all her troubles seemed to go away.

"Ah, well, then I will just have to—" Tomoyo dismounted her horse and stopped his hand.

"We're just passing through." She glanced at Sakura; she still didn't know where 'between life and death' was. Sakura grinned weakly, although she would dearly have loved the chance to kick this arrogant snob's ass.

Syaoran lowered his sword as Eriol jogged into the clearing.

"What's up, Syao? What happened?" Eriol turned to face the two girls and he grinned foolishly, almost shyly.

"These, these KIDS were in our forest."

"WE'RE NOT KIDS!" Sakura shrieked.

"Oh, yeah, cause of course you're not ACTING like one right now." Syaoran gave another smirk as Sakura reached for words. She looked for a feature to criticize.

"Oh yeah? You're so full of it, your eyes are BROWN!" she said.

"A thought just crossed my mind—I'll bet shit's what goes through your mind every day!" Syaoran sneered.

"A thought crossed your mind? Musta been a long, lonely journey through a barren wasteland." Sakura shot back.

"Hey, hey! What are you doing here anyway?" Eriol asked calmly.

"Looking for the Elementals." Sakura said, and then blushed deep red, realizing what she had given away. Arei and Tomoyo shot her a glance.

"Really?" Eriol asked with a wise look on his face. Syaoran snorted inwardly, rolling his eyes.

"May we assist in any way? Help you find the Elementals?" At these words from Eriol, though, his head snapped up, sending evil blood-coated daggers spinning into Eriol's unprotected side… with his eyes.

Maybe not.

Syaoran looked at Eriol, who was looking at the girl with the dark hair in the bandanna. Eriol was actually looking sheepish, a little, shuffling his feet and scratching his elbow. Syaoran made a tiny animal noise in the back of his throat. He LIKED her! Yuck! Oh well, with that … that GIRL leading them, they'd never accept.

"Yeah, sure." Sakura, after a coaxing look from Tomoyo, agreed. This guy seemed very wise and kind, unlike the idiot. That gaki.

Tomoyo smiled a little, and sat on a rock to wait while the guys saddled their horses.

"ERIOL! WHY THE HECK DID YOU-" Syaoran screamed. Eriol, however, just stalked out of screeching distance.

Syaoran walked to the barn alone to saddle his horse, Thunderfire.

"Ssssh, Thunder. What is it?" he inquired softly. He was only gentle with his horse. He patted his velvety nose softly, and then turned to see what Thunderfire was looking at. It was another horse that Syaoran had never really cared for, Snaketail. He was lying peacefully on the ground, asleep.

"What?" Syaoran asked his horse again. Thunder tossed his mane and stomped his feet.

Snaketail was not asleep. Syaoran slipped over to the horse and unlatched the stall door. He yelled in horror as he looked down at the horse's midsection. It was white and oozing; the skin was gone and the muscles and revealed body parts were the same milky color. Syaoran caught a glimpse of the pallid stomach and the shining intestine, and emptied his meal onto the ground next to him. He leaned closer, nearer to the gaping hole in the skin. It looked burned away, as if by acid.

Nestled between the stomach and rib cage was a small white blob, with a dark red mouth with something stringy dangling from it. Everything it touched turned white. It looked happy and smug. Syaoran was sickened. He cast an fire square onto the tiny thing and tugged it out of Snaketail.

Pure Death, it was called. It looked so innocent… until it attacked. It smiled winningly at Syaoran, before he compacted the fire square into nothingness, taking the PD with it. It would send it back to Chaos where it belonged.

Eriol smelled something awful, and entered the stables, to see Syaoran kneeling near what was once a good horse, stubborn, but friendly in his own way. Eriol merely closed his eyes and willed the spirit of Snaketail to go to Destiny. He then took a hold of his power, and for the second time, lifted an animal and moved it. He moved a chunk of soil with one hand and placed Snaketail in the hole gently, then placed the soil back over him, and smoothed out the top by hand. He placed a rock on the small mound and carved 'Snaketail' into it like it was butter.

Syaoran still knelt there.

Girl or no, they had to find those Elementals.

"What's taking them?" Sakura wondered.

"Dead horse." Tomoyo responded. Before Sakura could ask, she said 'Horse magick!'

Sakura turned to mount her horse just as Syaoran, on a magnificent stallion, and Eriol, on a beautiful mare, entered the clearing.

"Sorry. Got held up." Eriol said, with a brave attempt at a smile. Sakura made no snide comment. She merely turned Farai and motioned for Arei to get on.

No one talked as they left the clearing.

The merry musty autumn air behind them was left with a cold feeling that weighed it down. No more joy was there.

A thirteen year old, four brave steeds, and four teenagers set out on a mission that would change the future of the kingdom… and their lives… forever.

Sakura could feel the cold eyes of that brown-eyed dude digging into her back.

"My name's Sakura," she announced to the path, her eyes perfectly steady on the way ahead.

"Eriol," said Eriol, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

"Syaoran." Syaoran muttered, head down and eyes up.

"Tomo, tomo, tomo-eda CHEER!" Tomoyo shrilled. Sakura looked at her with a strange expression.

"It's what my friends called me in cheer class, my name's Tomoyo..." she said sheepishly.

"Arei." Arei said in a stony voice, and silence once again reigned, the king of a world where lips were made of stone and tongues forever stilled by a land ravaged by terror. The king of a land with Lady Chaos as his queen, and monsters the hunters...

And humans the prey.

Gold, crazed eyes still watched.

* * *

**Phew! Longish chapter! They're murdering us with work at school, I don't even know how I got 13 pages done, definitely couldn't do the twenty or thirty I usually do… Sorry for not updating. **

**Proceleusmatic**


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